Apology
by Kellifer
Summary: A tent, a rainy night and inevitability.


Disclaimer - I do not own or operate any of the characters or events in Stargate SG1. Enjoy but don't sue.

-Apology-

Neither of them know when it started, it was just a silent agreement.

Separate tents.

It wasn't like they were horny teenagers and couldn't keep their hands off each other. It was just...easier. They seemed to gravitate towards each other in sleep. More than once they had woken up tangled together. They hadn't _done_ anything but anyone seeing them like that would have thought they had. That wasn't the only concern though.

Sam had just taken to sharing a tent with Teal'c on missions. Daniel and Teal'c didn't mention it and Jack didn't either. If it was unspoken it wouldn't be an issue. When they slept outside, the night too nice or when they were stranded without a tent they made sure to sleep apart. Again unspoken.

Again... easier.

He'd stopped touching her aswell. He'd once patted her on the shoulder, touched her arm when they talked. Hugged her when she was upset or he was. That had stopped. This was also something unspoken. Something that hurt her but she knew why. She instead sought easy, tangle-free affection from Daniel and Daniel was more than happy to give it. Thought nothing of it really. He'd always been quick to give her a hug or a touch. He didn't notice that she sought him out more often for these simple acts of human contact.

Jack did.

He noticed every touch he couldn't give her.

They'd been cruising along that way for about 8 months. They'd thought it would just work for them forever. Then they'd gone to P2X-478 and had gotten hopelessly lost while travelling, the magnetics of the planet increasing the further away from the gate they had gotten. They'd lost contact with Teal'c and Daniel when they'd separated to explore, not knowing that their radios would fail with prolonged exposure to the elements. Then the rain had started, pounding and horrible.

They didn't discuss it. They put the one tent up together and both crawled inside, shivering and cold. They didn't discuss removing their sodden clothes and curling together with both sleeping bags over them. He didn't ask permission when rubbing her skin to bring back the warmth became gentle explorations of the curves and contours he no longer allowed himself to feel.

She didn't protest.

Instead she sighed and leaned into the feeling of his rough hands on her soft skin as they explored. She'd been so cold... so untouched for so long that slumbering nerve endings awoke to his gentle ministrations and she signed again. She brought her hands up and knotted them through his tousled brown hair, shot with grey now. He let her pull his head back so their gazes met. Brown on blue. "I'm sorry Sam." He said and she wasn't sure what he was apoligising for, whether for touching her now, like this, or whether because he had held off touching her like this for so long. She didn't care. Instead she brought his face towards her and touched her lips to where a scar cut a crooked swathe through his brow. She felt him shiver. Her lips travelled down, running along the length of his nose and finding his own lips.

She had always read in romance stories where people 'hungrily devoured' each others mouths and always thought it a silly turn of phrase, but she could not describe the crushing kiss she and Jack shared as anything but. She pulled away a little as her mind began to work, but she heard a rough grunt as Jack realised she was trying to stop and lowering his head and bringing his mouth to rest over an aching breast wiped her mind clean of distractions, except for the sensation of being there, finally being _one_.

"I'm sorry Sam." He mumbled again, lips travelling from her breast down the flat planes of her belly. He travelled upwards again and folded her warmth against himself, relishing the feel of her long, lean body pressed flat against his own. He was careful and languid, not wanting their skin contact to break, fearful that it would dispel the small plane of existence they'd built about themselves where what they were doing was right.

Neither could tell if it were minutes or hours when they finally fell apart, gasping for breath, their bodies slicked with sweat.

"I'm sorry, Major." Jack whispered. That one word, her rank, made the tiny gap between them yawn wide like a cavern. Sam turned away, burying her face in her arms.

"I'm sorry too, Sir." She replied.


End file.
